Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/97

 he did not ring bells for the guidance of an engineer below, but had complete control of the power himself. I never before saw a steamboat so rigged Two or three hours after leaving Pipiriki, we began to see evidences of civilization; including a cemetery. For several days we had been in the wilds where a cemetery was not seen. The river still ran through mountains, but we stopped frequently, and took on mail and passengers. At some places the boat ran its nose into the bank for a moment, a deck hand jumped to the shore and grabbed a mail sack hanging on a stick, and then we backed into the stream. At other places we stopped at villages, and took on wool, fruit, passengers, and sheep-dogs. A good sheep-dog is worth $50 in New Zealand. At some of these places passengers on the boat would call out to men ashore and ask them: "Got your wool out yet?" At one lonely place several native women came aboard, and they said good-by to dozens of women at the landing in the peculiar Maori way. When we pulled out we saw those on shore riding up the hills, on horseback, followed by a lot of dogs. There were many native passengers, and they occupied one section of the boat; whether this was a sort of "Jim Crow" arrangement, or whether the natives preferred being together, I do not know. At breakfast I did not see any of the natives at the tables We passed a boat coming up, and our captain called out to the pilot: "Water twenty-one, Jake; look out for Wintoni shoal." We passed the boat on the left, instead of on the right, which is the custom with all traffic here. It was cold on the river early in the morning, and we hugged the smokestack, but by ten